Sarah O'Reilly (Aontú)

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. Ireland risks fines of between €8 billion and €26 billion if we fail to meet the EU climate targets. I believe we were set up for a sure fail on unreachable targets and our Government obediently and knowingly signed us up for inevitable failure. In 2008, when the economic crash came, the Government incentivised farmers to produce more so we could export more.Farmers were encouraged to invest and turn out more produce. In many ways, farmers helped to get Ireland on the road to financial recovery. Now, after heavily investing, they are being told to reduce and restrict herds. Farmers and Irish citizens cannot be scapegoated for the Government's failure to meet EU climate targets. People warned at the time that this would negatively impact on the Irish economy but no one would listen. We now see the same with CAP funding. If Ursula von der Leyen gets her way, CAP will be moved to a single-stream funding model and will no longer be ring-fenced. This is a direct threat to the livelihood of thousands of farmers and to the rural economy. Mercosur is also a threat to Irish farmers. Any attempt to remove ring fencing of CAP funding would put a knife through the very heart of the policy.

I plead with the Minister to act to prevent the decimation of our rural economy. With looming threats of tariffs, we need economic resilience. Now would be an opportune time for the Government to invest more in indigenous businesses. In my area, there is no funding for local enterprise parks. Funding should be directed through the local authorities to enable them to buy land and develop fully serviced sites to give local businesses the space to develop and grow. There are major hurdles at the moment in the areas of water, sewerage, electricity and planning. If local authorities are able to provide serviced sites for local businesses, we will see a massive uptake. Businesses want to build and expand but there is nowhere for them to go. We are incredibly innovative people who can easily compete with the rest of the world but we are bound by so much red tape and bureaucracy. We must collectively look for a way through on this issue.